Book Review – Can You Make a Desert Tortoise Your Pet?

The desert tortoise is an endangered species in California, so you are not supposed to take it as a pet, but if it enters your property or digs under the fence for shade and food, or burrows under the patio, it is not. They are not allowed to be moved unless you call in a wildlife biologist for help. It is quite a complicated endeavor. However, sometimes you can make them feel more like home and they make good pets. Still, you may not want to get too attached, they eventually decide to leave, and often don’t come back for a while, sometimes never.

There is quite a difference between males and females, and you can easily tell the difference. Males have an indentation underneath that matches the shape of the female’s carapace for mating, as the male mounts the female in this process. That’s the easiest way to find out. If you see a desert tortoise you may see a small sensor attached to the shell, don’t worry, it is a wildlife tracking device to help biologists learn more and protect the habitat of the species.

Wildlife biologists remind us to always check under our tires and cars if we are in their domain because they often seek shelter from the summer sun in the shade below. If you see a desert tortoise, do not pick it up and move very slowly so as not to disturb it. If you startle or pick him up, he could discharge his bladder where he stores water, this is very bad. If that happens, you’d better put it in some water to get it soaked back into your system. And if you take one because it is on the road, always place it in the same direction, otherwise it will be disoriented in terms of the direction of travel.

How would you like to learn more about keeping a turtle as a pet? If so, let me recommend you a very good book, it is available in digital or paper version, the name of the book is:

“Sulcata and Leopard Tortoises – Complete Herp Care”, by EJ Pirog, TFH Publishing, Neptune City, NJ, 2008, 128 pages, (digital e-book version) ASIN: B005KKODD4, ISBN: 978-0-7238-2898-2 .

In this work, you can learn about many of the African tortoise species and the size of the “clutches” they lay eggs and how many eggs they lay along with their habit needs, the mating season, the incubation time of the eggs and what type of predators try. to get those eggs. Knowing what they eat is also very important. Most tortoises in arid regions are similar in nature, and be sure not to call them tortoises, as they are different. Please consider all of this and think about it.